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Carl Donovan
"You crazy, you know that? You belong in here, no doubt about that." '' ''- Donovan, Lockdown Carl Donovan is first introduced as Alex's cellmate in the beginning of ''Lockdown''. '' He was incarcerated at the age of eleven after the Summer of Slaughter and has been living for five years in the prison. Appearance Donovan is a sixteen year old Black teenage boy. He has been described as being tall, muscular, and dark skinned. He's characterised notably for have a wide bright smile that shines through the darkness, according to Alex. Personality Donovan displays an air of indifference and toughness to avoid being targeted by the various gangs in Furnace. He knows how to fight, and once was put in solitary after a fight with gang member. He is one of the few people who has unrestricted access to the Furnace gym. While inmates make room for him and respect his reputation, Donovan does not try to go out to cause trouble and seems now that he avoids picking fights. ''"I already knew Carl Donovan was many things, but he was a terrible liar." '' - Alex, Lockdown'' Around Alex and Zee, he is much kinder, more like a weary older brotherly figure who shows Alex around Furnace and teaches him the rules of the prison. He claims that in Furnace, you cannot afford to make friends and bring your heart down with you, but comes around to his new friendships, more loyal than ever. During his five years in Furnace, Donovan has witnessed the many changes, and worse so, punishments that Furnace provides. Because of this, Donovan often scolds Alex for breaking the rules and initially rejects the idea of escape. Donovan also appears to be a little vain as well, calling himself handsome and beautiful at times while also remarking that he goes to the prison gym often to keep his body in shape. In the short story, it's revealed Donovan finds a way to make his own toothbrush and gets his haircut on a normal basis.www.escapefromfurnace.com/#/prison-blog Hallucination / Apparition "It's a good thing there ain't no windows in here, you look like a dog's ass." '' - Donovan, Solitary'' In Solitary, Alex began to have hallucinations of the people in his life while in the hole. Donovan was one of them, more forgiving than every other apparition. There is a couple of notable differences between this Donovan and the real one. The first being as a hallucination, his visage blinks and flickers in and out of existence a lot, and after Alex sees Donovan as a blacksuit, Donovan becomes progressively less recognizable. The other difference being ghost Donovan appears to be more blunt and pettily insulting towards Alex. This could be a projection of Alex's own self-hatred on this part. Main Story Back Story "Well, we're all killers, but there's two kinds - the ones who did it for fun and the ones who did it 'cause they had no choice." '' ''- Donovan, Lockdown. Five years prior to Alex's arrival, Carl Donovan was incarcerated as an eleven year old for the murder of his mother's abusive boyfriend. According to Donovan, boyfriend was beating his mother every night and it had gotten to the point where Donovan snapped and killed him with a candlestick. Due to the fact the incident happened right after the events of the Summer of Slaughter, Donovan was given a life sentence. He was initially held in an adult facility for a couple of months before transferring to the opening of Furnace. It's implied Donovan's mother committed suicide out of grief for her son's sentence. From then on in his time underground, few stories are recounted. He recalls the years where the shower room wasn't built and all the inmates had to clean with buckets and sponges. There was a gang called the Leopards that aren't really around anymore, and that Donovan personally got sent to the hole for three days after a nasty fight with some of their members. There was an outright prison riot between the Skulls and the Leopards so bad the canteen was shut down for three days straight. Lockdown To see this text, click the "Expand" link on the right Carl Donovan is first introduced when Warden Cross announces that Donovan will be Alex's cellmate, the former giving a hardened demeanor. After the announcement, Donovan guides Alex up to the six floor to where their cell would be. As Alex begins to take in what would be of his future, he immediately imagines jumping out of the sixth floor to commit suicide. To Alex's surprise, Donovan seems to know what he was thinking by saying that the sixth floor isn't high enough and to go up to the seventh or eighth floor. "S'okay. It's the first thing any of us think about. And I've seen people do it, too. Jump from pretty much every level. Well, the ones that are open anyway." '' With that, Donovan properly introduces himself with a smile, saying he prefers the name Donovan over Carl. He warns Alex to be cautious around the inmates in the yard, noting that just about everyone in the prison is a murderer. Alex asks how long Donovan has been in Furnace, to which he answers that he's been locked up for five years, a first generation inmate. In answer to Alex's follow up question asking if he was framed, Donovan says he was not. The blacksuits had framed a lot of people, but he was in because he killed his mother's abusive boyfriend when he was eleven and couldn't take it anymore. Since the events of the Summer of Slaughter, Donovan was convicted anyway as all cases of juvenile murder were used as warnings to the general public. He also implies that ironically, after he had gotten a life sentence, his mother killed herself. Alex changes the subject, asking about how the time system in the prison works. Donovan explains that there isn't a concrete sense of time and that the day is divided up by sirens. He suggests going back downstairs in time to catch dinner, when Alex notices five faint marks clawed into the wall. Donovan cryptically tells Alex he'll know soon enough who comes at night, and that his former cellmate Adam had clawed that wall fighting for his life. The two make their way down to the trough room, Donovan once again back to an air of hard indifference citing that in Furnace you have to act tough to avoid the gangs. The guards don't care if the inmates kill each other or not and the inmates have nothing to lose. In the trough room, Donovan and Alex settle at a table before Donovan offers to grab food for the both of them. When he returns, Alex introduces Donovan to Zee whose joined them. At Alex and Zee's refusal to eat the canteen slop, Donovan laughs at them, assuring that anything can taste good when you're starving. Zee and Alex then shoot questions about any kind of escape at Donovan, who cautions them to watch what they're saying and who they're talking to. Donovan answers that the prison's layout only goes further down into the infirmary, the storage tunnels, warden's offices and for the hole (solitary confinement). He'd been down in solitary for three days for a fight he had with a former gang called the Leopards, how there's no food or light and that the only water was the condensation from the walls. He then reiterates that there's no point in trying to escape the prison, and to be careful about making friends as you'll lose them just as quickly. At this point, a fight breaks out in the canteen and the lockdown siren sounds forcing everyone out of the canteen. Alex is knocked down by the rush of the crowd trying to get back into their cells, but is saved by Donovan who pulls him up and drags him back up to their cell. Once settled down, Alex thanks Donovan for saving him, but Donovan brushes it off telling Alex that he only helped him because Alex was new, and that he was not Alex's guardian angel. The two share a laugh before settling in for the rest of the evening in their cell. Donovan abruptly warns Alex to never get up at night if the siren sounds and the blood red lights are on, before wishing him goodnight. The following day Donovan tries to comfort Alex, who'd woken him up after vomiting from a night terror, assuring him that the nightmares eventually do go away. The two finish getting ready for the morning, Donovan and Alex head back down to the yard to find out they were chippers for the morning. After breakfast, the two head down to the chipping halls where inmates spend the morning carving out the hall with pickaxes. The morning goes through with ease, though Donovan musings about cave ins doesn't settle Alex's anxiety. Once hard labour has ended, Alex and Donovan proceed to the shower room where Donovan explains how the inmates had actually carved the room out in three years. His theory about the chipping hall is that it's less about making space and more about tiring the kids out so they'd be easier to control. ''"Knackered inmates are a lot easier to control than pumped up ones. And sometimes there are cave-ins, like in Room Two the other week. And dead inmates are easier to control, if you follow me." Later, Alex and Donovan meet Zee in the trough room for lunch. Alex notices the Skulls beating up on someone out of sight and asks Zee and Donovan if they knew who it was. Zee doesn't know, but Donovan tries to lie and assure it wasn't anyone Alex knew. Due to Donovan's hesitance, Alex figures that the victim was Monty and Donovan reluctantly confirms. Alex is angered by the fact asking why nobody would come to Monty's aid. He ends up picking an argument with Donovan who counters that there always has to be a scapegoat, and that Alex doesn't have any business trying to fix the system just on his first full day. Donovan threatens to ditch Alex if he tries anything stupid, but Alex goes on and picks a fight with the Skulls anyway. A lockdown breaks out once more due to the skirmish, but Donovan refuses to help Alex out. While Alex and Zee finish the fight and try to evade the hell hounds, Donovan keeps the door to his cell propped open with their toilet seat. Once Alex and Zee trick the dogs having jumped from the seventh floor to the sixth, Donovan helps the two back into the cell, pulling the toilet seat out seconds before a dog barrels inside. Shortly afterwards, Donovan starts yelling about how stupid Alex was for picking fights he couldn't win, but gives up and climbs into his bunk. Alex apologizes to him and Zee, grateful for what they've both done to help him. When Zee is escorted back to his own cell, and Alex prays for being alive, Donovan only claims that they're all both dead and just don't know it yet. The morning afterwards, when the warden makes the trough room out of bounds due to the fights of the other day, Donovan says not to worry as it's not the first time the canteen's been shut down, and it likely wouldn't be the last. He also points out that Alex will be fine for the time being as the warden's other threat that any other fighting will result a week in solitary. Once their morning as chippers passed, Alex, Zee and Donovan wait by Room Two for the showers and simultaneously share a feeling of euphoria in the area, that Alex can only conclude was fresh air coming from the closed tunnel. Later, the three make their way up to Alex and Donovan's cell only to be stopped by Kevin and two other Skulls. Donovan straightens himself out to intimidate them, but the Skulls claim their only hear for Alex's business. They leave with a threat to Alex, who in turn realizes that the Skulls came by to piss on his bed. Disgusted, the three leave the cell behind and sit down somewhere else. Zee asks if the warden will lift his warning. Donovan says that it will be lifted in time, otherwise there'd be a riot, but there will be no formal announcement as the next time a skirmish breaks out it will just be a lockdown. The conversation turns into a discussion about who the warden is, and what his deal was running the prison. Four days after Alex's fight, Alex, Donovan and Zee are in the kitchen cooking slop for hard labour. They reminisce about their lives before prison, Donovan remarking that the one thing he wished he could've learned was how to cook a proper meal. Monty, who had been posted with them overheard the conversation, admitting that cooking was the only thing he could do well. As an action of kindness, Monty prepared a homemade meal for the three boys. Donovan had been so overwhelmed by eating real food for the first time in five years, he started sobbing and telling Monty how much he loved him. Unfortunately, it is that night when the blood watch strikes. When the night siren first sounds, Donovan prays to God not to be taken that night. When Donovan hears Alex moving on the bunk bellow, he hisses at Alex to stay put and not bring attention to the cell. Alex keeps trying to press Donovan for answers, only to be shot down by Donovan whispering for Alex to shut up. As the blood watch proceeds, Alex climbs out of bed the amount noise he made infuriating Donovan, who repeats for Alex to shut up and get back to bed, eventually giving up when Alex doesn't. When a wheezer approaches the cell for a minute before leaving, Donovan asks Alex if there's any mark on the cell. Relieved when Alex confirms that they weren't marked, Donovan repeats one last time for Alex to get back to bed. In the morning, Donovan refuses to speak to Alex, furious from last night's events. During hard labour, despite being posted together Donovan posted himself to be as far away from Alex as possible, and returning to his cell by himself after work. A while after, Alex returns to the cell with Zee and apologizes for what he had done in the night, then not really realizing how serious the blood watch was. Donovan accepts the apology, but is still wary. Zee brings up the conversation he had with Alex beforehand about escape to Donovan, personally disbelieving in it. Alex asks Donovan about Room Two and tries to get him into considering a way out, but is met with rejection. Before he can interject more, the conversation is interrupted by a commotion in the yard from the new kid, Gary taking on Kevin and the Skulls. At this development, Donovan is incredibly pleased, almost respectful of Gary for taking down Kevin. "This is great. Kevin's been asking for it since he arrived. About time he got some himself. Hope the new kid roughs him up a bit." The enthusiasm is immediately turned upside down once Gary takes over as his new position as Skull leader. After the incident with Gary, Alex goes at it again trying to persuade Donovan into the idea of escaping. Donovan continues to reject him over and over, until he snaps and asks why Alex is so desperate to die. He then goes on to tell a story about Scott White, an inmate who was the only person to ever make an escape attempt two years before. According to Donovan, Scott snuck into the air vents during a lockdown and navigated his way to the elevator hitched a ride up. Scott was then caught by the blacksuits after having gone delirious from a lack of food and water, and was taken down to the yard once more and fed to three of the warden's dogs. Processing this story, Alex asks if the air vents are still available. In frustration Donovan gives up, simply saying they were replaced by pipes and that everyone else was suffering thanks to "the last idiot to think of freedom." The next day, Alex and Donovan were posted for the chipping halls again. Donovan keeps glancing at Alex, concerned, and tells him not to do anything stupid. It's clear that Alex will, so Donovan disengages and leaves Alex to it without helping him. Later, when Alex returns from Room Two covered in blood, Donovan drops everything and helps carry Alex over, asking what had happened. Alex ends up puking on Donovan first. Alex apologizes and is about to explain what went down, before being stopped by Donovan who points out the guard watching them by the hall entrance. Later in the trough room, Alex talks about what happened in Room Two to Donovan and Zee. Zee is beginning to be more convinced of escaping by Alex's story, but Donovan remains uninterested. The discussion gets cut off by Gary coming over to their table, threatening Alex and then leaving once more. However, Alex is struck with the idea that what he heard in Room Two is an underground river. Alex, Donovan and Zee all argue over the theory for the rest of lunch. Donovan makes a point that they wouldn't have built an underground prison and not notice a river. Alex is adamant that it's the most logical explanation for the noise, and that a river must appear up top somewhere. Zee and Donovan disagree with him and change the conversation. During downtime, Alex and Zee go up to Alex's cell while Donovan went down to the gym. He ended up back up into the cell, fuming about how he wasn't allowed in again because Gary made the gym out of bounds for anyone who isn't fighting. To pass the time instead, Alex and Zee began to recite their favourite movies and TV shows, eventually waking Donovan out of his bad mood. That night however, the blood watch came again. Alex called out to Donovan again, scared that the wheezers would be coming back again. To Alex's surprise, Donovan peeked down at him, saying that the particular siren meant someone was coming back. At this, Alex sat up trying to get a view of the yard, earning a slap around the head from Donovan who warned that it doesn't mean they were in the clear, before going under the covers again. As the blood watch resumed, the thing that was being brought back is revealed to be a grotesque, mutated version of Monty who was returned to kill Kevin. The morning afterwards, Donovan wakes up Alex and calms him down from a panic attack. When asked about why Monty was brought back, Donovan sits by the bars of their cell, confessing that this wasn't the first time somebody was brought back and that he didn't know what happened. The first couple of times somebody had been returned, Donovan wasn't able to tell what the creatures were until one night in which he recognized one of the creatures as inmate due to the tattoos on its skin. Alex presses for more answers that Donovan cannot give before Donovan freaks out, horrified about what he saw done to Kevin. Alex takes this chance to convince Donovan once more about escape. "Can you promise me they won't catch us?" "No, Donovan. I can't promise anything, except that dying while trying to break free is better than being killed by one of those things." "Or becoming one of them. Okay, I'm in." - Donovan to Alex Solitary To see this text, click the "Expand" link on the right. At the end of Lockdown, Donovan is selected and taken by the blood watch. Alex vows that he'll go back and rescue Donovan. In Solitary, after Alex and Zee start working with Simon, they stop by the infirmary to see what's been happening to Donovan. In this stage of the story, Donovan has already had his eyes replaced with silver ones, and undergone surgery. At this point only his torso and legs have been affected, and his skin described as looking greyer and burning to the touch. He's completely doped on painkillers, fluttering in and out of reality, but notices when Alex starts to go and begs Alex not to leave him alone. The second time Alex, Zee and Simon visit, Donovan has undergone surgery again, his other leg affected now. This time, Alex could not hardly recognize him as Donovan's face had been scarred and distended. As Alex tried to reach out, Donovan had completely lost himself - chanting the words "Donovan is dead", laughing like a blacksuit repeatedly until Alex left. "There was nothing of that warmth now, no compassion. There was nothing there but the hateful sneer of a blacksuit. And it broke my heart." '' - Alex, Solitary'' After rescuing Zee, the trio make one final visit to Donovan. At this point, all of Donovan's surgeries seemed to be complete and all of his memories and personality were finally lost. Despite being restrained Donovan tried to attack the boys, which was the last straw for Alex. Recalling the last words Alex remembered from his hallucination ("You don't have to free me to save me"), Alex delivers the mercy kill, smothering Donovan with a pillow. Hallucination / Apparition Donovan appears as this first in Solitary, offering the limited advice he could from Alex's mind. This happens a in the rest of the books a few more times, and at the end of Execution when Alex kills all the blacksuits and rats in The Stranger's blood, it's Donovan's vision and smile that guides all the lost souls to a comforting ending. Relationships Alex Sawyer Donovan's cellmate whom Donovan first starts mentoring when they first meet. Alex initially gets on Donovan's bad sides after picking fights and breaking rules during his first bloodwatch. Despite this, the two eventually become closer as cellmates, and eventually as friends admitting that Alex was the one to make Donovan feel more like a sentimental fool. Zee even jokes they're like Siamese twins joined at the hip. After Donovan is taken, and in the beginning of Solitary, Donovan acts as a guardian angel to Alex as a hallucination (ironically enough, exactly what Donovan had first claimed he wouldn't become). Zee Hatcher An inmate and mutual friend of Alex's that Donovan becomes friends with during the events of Lockdown. They gradually get closer as the story goes along, joking and teasing each other. During Alex's depression, they spent more time alone together to discuss escape plans. After Donovan's death, Zee still regards him fondly. Appearances * Lockdown * Solitary Sources Category:Characters